It was a big year for big mergers of old-line tech companies (old line in this context meaning founded in the 20th century) — Oracle–Sun Microsystems, Dell–Perot Systems, Xerox–Affiliated Computer Services, HP-3Com. But since we can't tell which of those deals will work out, why not focus instead on a merger that was consummated in 2008 and started paying dividends this year? With the acquisition of the IT-services firm founded by H. Ross Perot in 1962, HP established itself as a services giant on par with Perot's former employer, IBM. And as HP's product businesses struggled in 2009, it was big profits from EDS that kept the company solidly in the black.